Link from griffen

[conuly]

There are some interesting comments in his journal already, but of course the entry is locked, so don't pop over if you're not a friend.

What the article basically says is that it has been predicted that by the end of the year the US economy will collapse (entirely), and eventually drag the rest of the world down with it, so there's really not much point in trying to outrun the troubles by up and moving to Canada.

(My plan right now is Finland, which has the highest standard of living in the world. All I need to do now is learn Finnish and find a job or school or man there, right? Right?)

Of course, I can't just up and go anywhere, I'm stuck with my family. If I'm gone, Jenn or 'dul isn't earning any money because somebody has to watch the kids.

So instead, I need a plan. One that either allows me to drag my entire family with me here or there, or that allows me to hunker down on Staten Island. I never have a plan. I always plan to have a plan, but then I get scared and run off from plans. I need somebody to give me *their* plan, and then I can modify that.

Oh, and by the way? If planning fails - can I stay with any of you? I have l33t childcare skills apparently (I think I'll invest a little of my money and take a CPR course this month or next, actually, make 'em even more useful), which is nothing to sneeze at.

Edit: And the other link from griffen. Honestly, where does this shock come from? The other day at the supermarket, the cashier - a woman maybe ten years older than I am - told me upon seeing my bags that she's been "hearing lately" that plastic "doesn't break down and stays around forever" and that "oil is running out". Well, yeah. I just nodded and confirmed that this is true, but inside I'm wondering what the fuck she's been doing the past 25 years! Because I *know* I was hearing about this as a child! It was a big topic then! And she's not that much older than I am, so it can't be that she was raised in an entirely different era and hasn't caught up to the times yet either.

I just don't get it.

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

All I need to do now is learn Finnish

Have fun!

Finnish and its 14 (or so) noun cases are waiting for you :)

[conuly]

That actually *does* sound like fun, though I'm not sure I'll be able to gain even passive fluency in the next seven months or so. Hm. Maybe I need to try Canada again. How do I go about going to school there...?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

The economy has gone to crap before and it's always come back. It's not like "Oh, the world economy is broken forever. Everyone go back to bartering for the next few thousand years until someone thinks of a new idea."

[conuly]

I agree (and I even think the same about the current ecological nightmare - sure, it's terrible, but in the long view things always come around again anyway, even if we're all too dead to enjoy it), but what the heck do I do in the rough years?

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

I recommend Norway over Finland, Norwegian is much more similar to English and the standards of living are about the same ;]

Seriously: you're not alone, my country is on the verge of collapse as well. But I think Hungary will function for another 2 or 3 years before the big crunch, unless the US economy collapses earlier, in which case I have no idea.

But I don't think the US economy would collapse in a year. And it's in much better shape than the Hungarian economy LOL.

[conuly]

Norway, eh?

Somebody online was complaining that she doesn't think the Finnish educational system was so hot, because she couldn't name one good thing Finland has produced lately. All I can say is that this is a country that hasn't engaged in war in the past 60 years, and it's got the highest fucking standard of living in the world - if I were them, I wouldn't go around calling attention to those facts.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

You're on Staten Island? I knew you were back East somewhere, in some city, but I was thinking it was Baltimore or Atlanta.

Cities give me the willies. They feel like a trap: too many people in too little space, having to compete for too few resources, most of which are imported from outside. Too much machinery, too much clamor and stench and things that can go wrong. It's hard to earn enough just to live, let alone to finance an escape. If the resources stop coming for any reason, there'll be violent insurrection within days, and the ways out of the city will be closed to prevent the desperate populace from swarming out to ravage the suburbs.

So I say you should get out. Sticking together with your family sounds like the smart thing to do, as well as the good thing for them - it's better to be part of a stable household if bad trouble happens, than to be off on your own with no one who cares about you near enough to help. Besides, you know it would break your heart and theirs to leave your little nieces. Therefore the only sensible thing to do is for you all to get out of the city together.

So, you have a household of three adults. This means that in the course of moving to a new place, you've got a big advantage, because one person can be the 'advance scout', get a job and find a place to live while one person continues working and the third looks after the kids.

So where would you all like to live? The 'good' foreign countries aren't looking for immigrants unless they have mad skillz, substantial assets, or solid family or business connections. Anyway, if you'd find it difficult to move you all to, say, Virginia or Pennsylvania or Missouri, think how much more difficult it would be to move across an ocean.

You're the Research Goddess, so... what kind of place would suit you? A safe and beautiful place with clean air, water and local food, where you'd fit in with the community and be able to find good employment - a friendly, laid-back, diversity-tolerant community that won't burn you at the stake for being a bit odd - a place where you could build something solid for yourselves, a secure life, instead of just surviving the city one day at a time.

If the US economy collapses entirely, first of all it's not going to collapse in the catastrophic sense some doom-sayers like to predict, where you wake up one morning and the banks are all closed. Prices may get high, jobs scarce, commodities limited, luxuries unobtainable or unaffordable, but things will still clunk along. Rome didn't fall in a day, y'know; there's still time.

[conuly]

Four adults, with my mother... and knowing our family, we'd probably have at least one tag-along family with us (I'm thinking of a specific group of people here), which adds another three adults (and two kids, but honestly, two kids, four kids, they're no harder to look after once you've got more than one).

Honestly, the only place in the world I really want to live is NYC! I grew up here, I love it here, this is where my family went to escape the *last* recession. But that's not always going to be a safe and practical option.

Thinking logically, I do suspect the easiest place to go (that isn't itself a hazard) is Canada - but everybody thinks of Canada. Then again, I heard that they're starting incentives for moving onto the Canadian prairies again, that might be a good idea if it's true.

Alternatively, it might be a good idea to just move to a more open part of the US... but with things going the way they are, the emptiest parts of the country are having, if nothing else, all the water shipped right out of them. I like water. Water is good.

Otherwise, I really don't know. I hate to limit my choices to places where we speak the language, but... y'know, I do believe that I have to limit our choices to places where we speak the language. Which means English, bad French, or bad Spanish.

Which means I don't know.

I think what I should do right now is figure out what the real options are before planning for them. Like, as I said, if I can go to school in another country, then stay there - that's a good option. Or if I know I can get land cheap in this state or that state - that's a good option. Moving just to move? Not a good option.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

The market economy (which is, roughly, what the world has) *is* a cycle of booms and busts. That's what this type of economy *does*. Some of them are bigger than others, that's all.

[conuly]

Yeah, why is that, do you know?

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

If the Canadian economy goes to hell, my plan is glue cotton balls to myself and move to New Zealand to live with the sheep.

[conuly]

Think you can eat grass?

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

You can stay with me! I've got a toddler you can watch!

[conuly]

Duly noted.

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

It's nice here, in OK.

[conuly]

Would you go so far as to say it's OK in OK? Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain?

[pne.livejournal.com]

All I need to do now is learn Finnish

Have fun!

Finnish and its 14 (or so) noun cases are waiting for you :)

[conuly]

That actually *does* sound like fun, though I'm not sure I'll be able to gain even passive fluency in the next seven months or so. Hm. Maybe I need to try Canada again. How do I go about going to school there...?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

The economy has gone to crap before and it's always come back. It's not like "Oh, the world economy is broken forever. Everyone go back to bartering for the next few thousand years until someone thinks of a new idea."

[conuly]

I agree (and I even think the same about the current ecological nightmare - sure, it's terrible, but in the long view things always come around again anyway, even if we're all too dead to enjoy it), but what the heck do I do in the rough years?

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

I recommend Norway over Finland, Norwegian is much more similar to English and the standards of living are about the same ;]

Seriously: you're not alone, my country is on the verge of collapse as well. But I think Hungary will function for another 2 or 3 years before the big crunch, unless the US economy collapses earlier, in which case I have no idea.

But I don't think the US economy would collapse in a year. And it's in much better shape than the Hungarian economy LOL.

[conuly]

Norway, eh?

Somebody online was complaining that she doesn't think the Finnish educational system was so hot, because she couldn't name one good thing Finland has produced lately. All I can say is that this is a country that hasn't engaged in war in the past 60 years, and it's got the highest fucking standard of living in the world - if I were them, I wouldn't go around calling attention to those facts.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

You're on Staten Island? I knew you were back East somewhere, in some city, but I was thinking it was Baltimore or Atlanta.

Cities give me the willies. They feel like a trap: too many people in too little space, having to compete for too few resources, most of which are imported from outside. Too much machinery, too much clamor and stench and things that can go wrong. It's hard to earn enough just to live, let alone to finance an escape. If the resources stop coming for any reason, there'll be violent insurrection within days, and the ways out of the city will be closed to prevent the desperate populace from swarming out to ravage the suburbs.

So I say you should get out. Sticking together with your family sounds like the smart thing to do, as well as the good thing for them - it's better to be part of a stable household if bad trouble happens, than to be off on your own with no one who cares about you near enough to help. Besides, you know it would break your heart and theirs to leave your little nieces. Therefore the only sensible thing to do is for you all to get out of the city together.

So, you have a household of three adults. This means that in the course of moving to a new place, you've got a big advantage, because one person can be the 'advance scout', get a job and find a place to live while one person continues working and the third looks after the kids.

So where would you all like to live? The 'good' foreign countries aren't looking for immigrants unless they have mad skillz, substantial assets, or solid family or business connections. Anyway, if you'd find it difficult to move you all to, say, Virginia or Pennsylvania or Missouri, think how much more difficult it would be to move across an ocean.

You're the Research Goddess, so... what kind of place would suit you? A safe and beautiful place with clean air, water and local food, where you'd fit in with the community and be able to find good employment - a friendly, laid-back, diversity-tolerant community that won't burn you at the stake for being a bit odd - a place where you could build something solid for yourselves, a secure life, instead of just surviving the city one day at a time.

If the US economy collapses entirely, first of all it's not going to collapse in the catastrophic sense some doom-sayers like to predict, where you wake up one morning and the banks are all closed. Prices may get high, jobs scarce, commodities limited, luxuries unobtainable or unaffordable, but things will still clunk along. Rome didn't fall in a day, y'know; there's still time.

[conuly]

Four adults, with my mother... and knowing our family, we'd probably have at least one tag-along family with us (I'm thinking of a specific group of people here), which adds another three adults (and two kids, but honestly, two kids, four kids, they're no harder to look after once you've got more than one).

Honestly, the only place in the world I really want to live is NYC! I grew up here, I love it here, this is where my family went to escape the *last* recession. But that's not always going to be a safe and practical option.

Thinking logically, I do suspect the easiest place to go (that isn't itself a hazard) is Canada - but everybody thinks of Canada. Then again, I heard that they're starting incentives for moving onto the Canadian prairies again, that might be a good idea if it's true.

Alternatively, it might be a good idea to just move to a more open part of the US... but with things going the way they are, the emptiest parts of the country are having, if nothing else, all the water shipped right out of them. I like water. Water is good.

Otherwise, I really don't know. I hate to limit my choices to places where we speak the language, but... y'know, I do believe that I have to limit our choices to places where we speak the language. Which means English, bad French, or bad Spanish.

Which means I don't know.

I think what I should do right now is figure out what the real options are before planning for them. Like, as I said, if I can go to school in another country, then stay there - that's a good option. Or if I know I can get land cheap in this state or that state - that's a good option. Moving just to move? Not a good option.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

The market economy (which is, roughly, what the world has) *is* a cycle of booms and busts. That's what this type of economy *does*. Some of them are bigger than others, that's all.

[conuly]

Yeah, why is that, do you know?

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

If the Canadian economy goes to hell, my plan is glue cotton balls to myself and move to New Zealand to live with the sheep.

[conuly]

Think you can eat grass?

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

You can stay with me! I've got a toddler you can watch!

[conuly]

Duly noted.

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

It's nice here, in OK.

[conuly]

Would you go so far as to say it's OK in OK? Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain?